James Carl Ouzts

James Carl Ouzts, born January 13, 1941 in Minden, Louisiana to Harry M Ouzts and Rosa E Cassels Ouzts, was the youngest of 3 siblings. He had two older sisters, Betty Joyce and Marilyn. He spent his youth fishing and causing some mischief with his cousins. He went to Minden High School, graduating in 1959, then on to Louisiana Tech – “a real forestry school” – graduating in 1965.

Before graduating he had already found a job with the USDA – Forest Service as a SCEP student intern. He traveled all around doing forest inventory in those earlier years and moved up through the ranks, working across many Forests and finally the Ocala in Florida, and then the Pisgah in North Carolina. He stayed with the Forest Service a total of 30 years. While working in Linville, NC on the Grandfather District, he hosted a hike for Sierra Club members from Charlotte, and that’s where he met Janet Hines Hunter. Within a year they were married and almost a year later their first child, Jessica Rosa, was born. Two years later, their second child, Joanna Hunter, was born.

James retired in 1994, the family moved from “the side of the mountain” on the Highway 226 up to Bakersville, NC, and they started building a house on 9-acres of “good-laying land” with an amazing view of Roan Mountain. Janet joined the Mitchell County school system as a multi-school teacher, along with Jessi and Jo as students.

James finished the house around 1998 with hired help and family support, and proceeded to improve the property and build a network in the local community over the next 25 years. He built a greenhouse, a second kitchen, a huge vegetable garden, a wood shed, a smoker, and made hundreds of pieces of furniture in his wood working shop. In spare time, he and Janet took their girls hiking and exploring and camping and fishing, just like they had since they were born.

In the community, he and Janet supported church potlucks, school fundraisers, coop for bulk dry goods, farmer’s market, and drove for Meals on Wheels. He didn’t slow down much until he had two seizures in Utah in 2019 on the way to visit Jessi in Flagstaff, Arizona. He and Janet had made extended road trips out of visiting Jessi over the previous decade, seeing National Parks and historical sites and visiting family and friends from Louisiana to Nebraska.

Despite two full knee replacements, a shoulder replacement, a couple of slipped discs, a heart valve replacement, auto-immune disorders, Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and an even longer list he was proud to recite, James kept cooking and playing cards and bringing his wry wit to every gathering.

After his third hospitalization with sepsis in 2026, he decided another long hospital and rehab center stay with IV antibiotics wasn’t a hand he wanted to play. He turned in his cards on September 4th, choosing to go into hospice with certainty and conviction. By September 12 at approximately 9:12 pm he went to get his permanent fishing license at the pond where the fish are always biting.

We miss him dearly. He was a special person and impacted many lives, most of all his surviving family.

Online condolences may be shared at the website www.austinandbarnesfuneralhome.com

Austin & Barnes Funeral Home and Crematory is serving the Ouzts family. 

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